Download Pump it Up

Remember, you want to keep the kids attention and get them
involved. Get to know the following information, be excited
about it, and you’ll keep the kids engaged and talking. Have
fun, search the standards, find at least two that are
appropriate for each grade level, and tailor your lesson to
incorporate them!
Examples of Possible Standards to incorporate:

Kindergarten: 7.11.1 Use a variety of objects to demonstrate
different types of movement (e.g., straight line/zigzag,
backwards/forward, side to side, in circles, fast/slow).

1st Grade: 7.1.1 Combine pictures of major body parts to assemble a complete animal.

2nd Grade: Inq. 1 Use senses and simple tools to make observations

3rd Grade: T/E.3 Determine criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of a solution to a specified
problem.

4th Grade: T/E.4 Evaluate an invention that solves a problem and determine ways to improve the
design.

5th Grade: 5.L.2 Show an understanding of cause and effect.
 6th Grade: L.1. The student will develop listening skills necessary for word recognition,
comprehension, interpretation, analysis, evaluation and appreciation of print and nonprint text.

7th Grade: 7.1.8 Apply the idea of the division of labor to explain why living things are
organized into cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.

8th Grade: 8.11.7 Solve problems pertaining to distance, speed, velocity, and time, given
illustrations, diagrams, graphs, or scenarios.
It’s a good idea to begin a discussion and lesson by discovering what your students
already know, so start out your lesson with the following activity.
Cardiovascular Kid
It's a bird, it's a plane....no it's Cardiovascular Kid! Get a large piece of
butcher paper - large enough for a student to lie down on. Divide your
students into two or more teams. In each team have a student lie down
on this paper and have another student outline his or her body. Now
have the two teams hang up the outline in front of the room. Working
together the teams must race to fill-in their outline with parts of the
cardiovascular system and the pictures of the organs supplied below.
The students must find the correct label for each of the structures that
are drawn or added onto their picture and add it to their Cardiac Kid.
Materials:
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Butcher paper (roll of white paper)
Markers/crayons (to outline and color the picture)
Pens and pencils (to label the structures)
Several sets of pictures and labels of internal organs cut out and put in separate sets
(one for each team).
Red and Blue Yarn
After students complete their pictures and are returned to their seats ask
them what is missing on both pictures (if the students haven’t added in their
veins and arteries) and write down their suggestions. They may suggest
things such as hair, skin, clothing, etc. Tell them that it is something inside
your body that connects to everything and keeps it all fed with oxygen and
nutrients and that they carry your blood. What are they?
The heart sends blood around your body. The movement of the blood
through the heart and around the body is called circulation (say: sur-kyoo-lay-shun), and your
heart is really good at it. (Ask students what the blood does for your cells and what they can
remember about blood from the previous lesson. Blood gives oxygen to the cells and takes away
the waste/garbage.)
The heart is so special that a long time ago, people even thought that their emotions (when you
feel happy, sad, angry, etc) and thoughts came from their hearts. (Ask students why people
would think their feelings and thoughts came from their heart.) Maybe because the heart beats
faster when a person is scared or excited. (Ask students where their emotions really come from.)
Now we know that emotions come from the brain, and the brain tells the heart to speed up or
slow down if you are happy or sad. (Ask students what the heart does.)
Working That Muscle
Your heart is really a muscle, which is a kind of tissue in your body that can tighten and loosen
so that other body parts move. It's located a little to the left of the middle of your chest, and it's
about the size of your fist. (Have students make a fist to see how large their hearts are. Who
has the largest heart?) There are lots of muscles all over your body — in your arms, in your legs,
in your back, and in your face, but the heart muscle is special because of what it does.
In under a minute, your heart can send blood to every cell in your body. And during one day,
about 100,000 heart beats move 2,000 gallons (show
students a gallon of red liquid and tell them that your
heart moves enough blood, that if it was a faucet it
would fill up an above-ground swimming pool) of
oxygen-rich blood many times through about 60,000
miles of branching blood vessels that link together
the cells of our organs and body parts. (Have older
students figure out how many miles per hour your
blood is traveling. 60,000 divided by 24 is miles per
hour. How many gallons per minute?)That's a lot of
work for a muscle the size of your fist that weighs less than your tennis shoe. (Option: Pass out
a piece of scrap paper to each student. The student will crumple it into a ball and hold it in his
hand. The teacher will instruct the students to squeeze the paper ball each time a number is
said. Watch the clock and count to 90 in one minute. Ask the students if this was hard or easy to
do. Did their hands get tired?)
So how can your heart do all that work? Your heart is like a pump, which is something that is
used to move liquids from one place to another. (Ask students for examples of pumps. Examples
of pumps include bike pumps, balloon pumps, squirt guns, turkey basters, eye droppers, squirt
bottles (cleaning products, Windex), and gas pumps) Your heart actually has two pumps in one,
one on the right and one on the left. The right side of your heart gets the blood that has come
back from the body and moves it to the lungs. The left side of the heart does the exact
opposite: It receives blood from the lungs and moves it (and the new oxygen) out to the rest of
your body.
Before each beat, your heart fills with blood. Then its muscle contracts to squirt the blood
along. When the heart contracts, it squeezes — (Have students flex their arms and feel their
muscles, what happened? The muscle went tight. Have them relax their arm and feel it. What
happened? It went soft.) You have to think about squeezing your arm, but you don’t have to tell
your heart to squeeze, if it stopped, you would stop living.
Heart Parts
The heart is made up of four different blood-filled areas, two for each
pump, and each of these areas is called a chamber, an open space, like a
room. (Show/create a diagram of the heart) There are two chambers on
each side of the heart. One chamber is on the top and one chamber is on
the bottom. The two chambers on top are called the atria (say: ay-treeuh). If you're talking only about one, we call it an atrium. The atria are the
chambers that fill with the blood that comes back to the heart from the
body and lungs. (Add the lungs to your diagram and show where the
blood flows in and out of the heart to each lung) The heart has a left
atrium and a right atrium.
The two chambers on the bottom are called the ventricles (say: ven-trih-kulz). (Show these on
the diagram) The heart has a left ventricle and a right ventricle. Their job is to squirt/squeeze
out the blood to the body and lungs. In the middle of your heart is a thick wall of muscle called
the septum (say: sep-tum). The septum's job is to keep the left side and the right side of the
heart separated. (Tell students that an easy way to remember the name of the septum is to
think of the word separate and how they sound like each other)
The atria and ventricles work as a team — the atria fill with blood, then move it into the
ventricles. The ventricles then squeeze, pumping blood out of the heart. While the ventricles
are squeezing, the atria refill and get ready for the next squeeze. So when the blood gets
pumped, how does it know which way to go?
Your blood relies on four special valves inside the heart. (Have students find these on the
diagram—what do they look like?) A valve lets something in and keeps it there by closing —
think of walking through a door. The door shuts behind you and keeps you from going
backward. (Ask students if they can think of any other things that act like valves. Tell them they
use two valves every time they wash their hands. What would that be? List their answers on the
board. Ex. faucets, garden hose nozzles, and soap dispensers.) Another valve would be on a sink.
The valve lets the water flow out, but not back in, and it lets it flow out when you turn the
handle. When you don’t want water anymore what do you do? You close the valve.
These valves all work to keep the blood flowing forward. They open up to let the blood move
ahead, then they close quickly to keep the blood from flowing backward.
It's Great to Circulate
Blood just doesn't sit still once it leaves the heart. It moves through many tubes called blood
vessels (Show the students different sized pieces of clear tubing. Ask students if anyone knows
the names of the two kinds of blood vessels) called arteries and veins. The branches of blood
vessels are both small and large, and if you were to string them all together end to end, they
would circle the world 2.5 times. The blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart are
called arteries. The ones that carry blood back to the heart are called veins. (Tell students that
they can remember the function of arteries by recalling that "A" stands for "Away from the
heart.")
Each side of your heart has specific job. (Have students raise their left hands) The left side of
your heart sends that oxygen full blood that just came from the lungs out to the body. (Have
students raise their right hands) When it comes back, the blood enters the right side of the
heart. The right ventricle pumps the blood to the lungs to get more oxygen. In the lungs, carbon
dioxide is taken out of the blood and sent out of the body when we exhale (breath out. Have
the students take a breath in. Ask them what they just brought into/inhaled into their bodies.
Have them breathe out. What did they just exhale/breathe out?). When we inhale we get a
fresh breath of oxygen that can enter the blood to start the process again. And remember, it all
happens in about a minute!
Every where an artery takes blood, there’s a vein to take the blood back to the heart. (Show
students the included diagram of the veins and arteries. Note: Veins are blue, arteries are red in
the diagram. Both veins and arteries go throughout the body, the diagram just shows them on
separate sides to make it less confusing) They work together side by side. So how can you tell
what those blood vessels you see in your hands are? There’s a simple test.
Have students roll up their sleeves so they can see the veins on the under side of the forearm.
2. Place your forefinger on one of the veins evident, then push the thumb along the vein
toward the shoulder. Leave the finger in place, and observe if the blood flows back into the
vein. Now remove the finger, and observe what happens.
3. Place the finger on one of the veins (preferably the same vein) and push the thumb along the
vein toward the hand. Leave the finger in place, and observe if the blood flows back into the
vein. Now remove the finger, and observe what happens.
4. Based on these observations, is it an artery, or a vein? (If it’s an artery, then the blood is
going to your hand, if it’s a vein, the blood is going from your hand, to your heart.)
Listen to the Lub-Dub
When you go for a checkup, your doctor uses a stethoscope to listen carefully to your heart. A
healthy heart makes a lub-dub sound with each beat. This sound comes from the valves
shutting on the blood inside the heart.
The first sound (the lub) happens when the top two valves close. The next sound (the dub)
happens when the bottom two valves close after the blood has been squeezed out of the heart.
Next time you go to the doctor, ask if you can listen to the lub-dub, too.
Pretty Cool — It's My Pulse!
Even though your heart is inside you, you don’t have to open yourself up to know that it’s
working. (Ask students what tells them their heart is working.) It's your pulse. You can find your
pulse by lightly pressing on the skin anywhere there's a large artery running just beneath your
skin. (Ask students where they can find their pulse at.) Two good places to find it are on the side
of your neck and the inside of your wrist, just below the thumb.
Detecting Your Pulse
This activity helps students construct a simple tool to visually detect
their pulse. Note: It is always best to test it out yourself
before you instruct the students so you will know the best
technique.
Materials:
 Rounded toothpicks
 modeling clay
 stopwatch or visible clock with a hand that shows seconds
Have students try and find their pulse. Tell them that they’ll know they’ve found their pulse
when they can feel a small beat under their skin. Each beat is caused by the contraction
(squeezing) of your heart. Have students find and count for 20 seconds and write their number
down. Then have them multiply that number by 3. That’s how many times their heart beats
every minute. When you are resting, you will probably feel between 70 and 100 beats per
minute. Ask the students what other ways there might be of taking someone’s pulse. Are there
any tools that you can use?
Tell the students you are going to give them some materials to work with and you are going to
work together to create a tool that will help them take their pulse.
Give each student a toothpick and a piece of clay. Have students stick the toothpick into a
"dime sized" lump of clay. Have students rest the "counter" on the inside of their wrist just
below the base of the thumb.
Have students observe the toothpick as it moves. Have students work in pairs to time the
counts in 20 seconds. Use this information to determine how many beats per minute. Did they
get the same answer as when they measured with their fingers? Which method was more
accurate?
Who has the fastest pulse in the group? Who has the slowest?
Ask students if anything affects how fast your heart beats. Have them give examples of times
when their heart has beat extremely fast or slow. (Fast—scared, excited, nervous) (Slow—
sleeping, tired, during a surgery)
Test it Out!—Do the following pulse experiments
1.Turn off the lights and after one to two minutes have students test their partner’s heartbeats. Did they
change? Faster or slower? Why do they think they got the results they did? If they were slower what
might be the reason why? (more relaxed?) If they were faster what might be the reason why? (Scared of
the dark?)
3. Have one partner run in place for one minute, then listen again. Have the students write
down what they hear and calculate the new beats per minute. Have the partners switch.
4. Help students come up with more tests such as seeing if holding their breath, going out into
cold weather, laughing, or eating hot sauce will raise their pulse rate.
Keep Your Heart Happy
Your heart started pumping blood before you were born and
will keep pumping throughout your whole life. Most kids are
born with a healthy heart and it's important to keep yours in
good shape. (Ask students what are some of the things they
can do to keep their hearts healthy and in good shape. What
are some of the things that can hurt your heart? Write them
in two columns up on the board.) Here are some things that
you can do to help keep your heart happy:
 Remember that your heart is a muscle. If you want it to be strong, you need to exercise
it. (Ask students for suggestions on how to exercise their hearts.) How do you do it? By
being active in a way that gets you huffing and puffing, like jumping rope, dancing, or
playing basketball. Try to be active every day for at least 30 minutes! An hour would be
even better for your heart!
 Eat a variety of healthy foods and avoid foods that have a lot of fat and sugar in them.
Reading the labels on foods can help you figure out if your favorite snacks contain these
unhealthy ingredients
 Try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables each day.
 Avoid sugary sodas and fruit drinks. (Ask students what other parts of your body can be
hurt by a lot of sugar. Ex. teeth)
 Don't smoke or use tobacco. It can damage the heart and blood vessels.
Charge Up Your Cardiac Kid
Materials:
 Red Yarn
 Blue Yarn
 Stick Glue and/or Tape
Have students get back into their teams. Give each team a ball of red yarn and a ball of blue
yarn. Tell them that in order to power up their Cardiac Kid, he needs to have his circulatory
system put in place. Give each team a diagram of the circulatory system and tell
them that at least one vein and one artery has to go to each part of the body
that is labeled on their pictures. (Including hands, feet, etc). They must glue
or tape their veins and arteries into place. The first team to correctly complete
their Cardiac Kid wins
VEIN
VALVE
VALVE
VEIN
ARTERY